Jeers

Monday

Aug 27, 2007 at 2:00 AM

To some village officials in Monticello, especially Trustee Scott Schoonmaker, for confusing a board meeting with the Jerry Springer show. Schoonmaker had a meltdown when the mayor voted to pay himself $4,000 for some of the time he served as village manager last year while that job was vacant. Schoonmaker and Trustee Gordon Jenkins have already made it clear that they did not approve of the way Mayor Jim Barnicle went about getting paid for the work. But their lawsuit to prevent payment went nowhere, with a judge ruling that the mayor was owed the money. Nobody likes to lose, but it is important for public officials to understand that sometimes they will. The appropriate response is not to shout and stomp out of the room, as Schoonmaker did. To the Department of Transportation for wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars to make the medians on Route 17 as pretty as they are safe. While it put in much-needed guardrails, the DOT also has decided to strip all the vegetation, then replace it with temporary grass, which then will have to be replaced yet again when that grass dies. Why rip up the grass in the first place? Can't they just put in the guardrails? Why replace it with grass that will not last? Homeowners would go broke if they did that. And why spend all that money and effort to groom areas that nobody uses for anything? Only the DOT knows. To all those who turned a minor request for sidewalks into a big deal. The leaders of Kiryas Joel said they wanted to take over part of County Route 44 to install much-needed sidewalks so the many pedestrians who live there can walk safely. There was no reason for the village to threaten to seize the road through eminent domain, especially since seizure of land by the village is such a sensitive topic. On the other hand, this rather mundane project gave lots of people an excuse to sound off about all the things they don't like about the village and the people in it. The county offer of an easement so the village can install sidewalks should solve the problem, if not calm those always looking for a fight.

To some village officials in Monticello, especially Trustee Scott Schoonmaker, for confusing a board meeting with the Jerry Springer show. Schoonmaker had a meltdown when the mayor voted to pay himself $4,000 for some of the time he served as village manager last year while that job was vacant. Schoonmaker and Trustee Gordon Jenkins have already made it clear that they did not approve of the way Mayor Jim Barnicle went about getting paid for the work. But their lawsuit to prevent payment went nowhere, with a judge ruling that the mayor was owed the money. Nobody likes to lose, but it is important for public officials to understand that sometimes they will. The appropriate response is not to shout and stomp out of the room, as Schoonmaker did. To the Department of Transportation for wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars to make the medians on Route 17 as pretty as they are safe. While it put in much-needed guardrails, the DOT also has decided to strip all the vegetation, then replace it with temporary grass, which then will have to be replaced yet again when that grass dies. Why rip up the grass in the first place? Can't they just put in the guardrails? Why replace it with grass that will not last? Homeowners would go broke if they did that. And why spend all that money and effort to groom areas that nobody uses for anything? Only the DOT knows. To all those who turned a minor request for sidewalks into a big deal. The leaders of Kiryas Joel said they wanted to take over part of County Route 44 to install much-needed sidewalks so the many pedestrians who live there can walk safely. There was no reason for the village to threaten to seize the road through eminent domain, especially since seizure of land by the village is such a sensitive topic. On the other hand, this rather mundane project gave lots of people an excuse to sound off about all the things they don't like about the village and the people in it. The county offer of an easement so the village can install sidewalks should solve the problem, if not calm those always looking for a fight.